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(02 Aug) 090801 Bill McKibben - Climate Change: Tipping Point Glaciers are retreating at a rapid rate. Within just a few years there will be no more snows on Kilimanjaro. Glaciers in the Andes, the Rockies, and the Himalayas are all shrinking. The polar ice shelves are fracturing. Sea level is rising. The permafrost is melting. Millions of people worldwide are at risk. A major refugee crisis looms. Climate change, if unchecked, will literally swamp all other issues facing humanity. A report from the Geneva based Global Humanitarian Forum, headed by Kofi Annan, states, "Climate change is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time." A full blown disaster is on the horizon. Will we act to save our precious home, planet earth? Time is short. World leaders will meet in Copenhagen to negotiate a new international climate treaty. Decisive action, not cosmetic changes, is required. We are at a tipping point. Bill McKibben was among the first who sounded the alarm on climate change with his bestselling book The End of Nature. A scholar in residence at Middlebury College, he is a leading activist, journalist and author on the environment. His latest book is Deep Economy. He is co-founder of 350.org (09 Aug) 090802 David Suzuki - Betraying Nature Our planet and its people are in peril. Diminishing fresh water supplies, destruction of forests, polluted air, species extinction at an unparalleled rate, and a toxic petrochemical environment are all clear signals that things are going seriously haywire. And climate change, the impacts of which are already evidenced at an accelerating pace, threatens environmental devastation on an almost incomprehensible scale. Rising sea levels will overwhelm island states, low lying countries such as Bangladesh, and many of the coastal areas where the world's population is concentrated. Climate change will bring more disease outbreaks, including new diseases and variants of existing ones for which there is no treatment. Changing weather patterns will leave many populated regions with too little rain to sustain agriculture. Existing environmental problems will worsen severely unless focused and rapid steps are taken to reverse the practices that are causing them. David Suzuki is a leading scientist, broadcaster, writer, and environmental activist. He is best known as host of the long-running CBC TV series, "The Nature of Things" seen in syndication in over forty countries. Author of many books, his latest is The Big Picture. He was awarded Canada's highest civilian honor for his work. (16 Aug) 100202 Lester Brown - Planetary Tipping Points Author and critic Susan Sontag once wrote, "A permanent modern scenario: apocalypse looms, and it doesn't occur . Apocalypse has become an event that is happening, and not happening. It may be that some of the most feared events, like those involving the irreparable ruin of the environment, have already happened. But we don't know it yet, because the standards have changed. Or because we do not have the right indexes for measuring the catastrophe. Or simply because this is a catastrophe in slow motion." Sontag added, "That even an apocalypse can be made to seem part of the ordinary horizon of expectation constitutes an unparalleled violence that is being done to our sense of reality, to our humanity." It seems now we are watching the catastrophe in slow motion. We've got front row seats to our planet in gradual decline. Lester Brown is the president of the Earth Policy Institute. The Washington Post calls him "one of the world's most influential thinkers." In 1974 he founded the Worldwatch Institute, the first research institute devoted to the analysis of global environmental issues. He is the recipient of many awards including the UN Environment Prize. He is the author of numerous books including Eco-Economy and Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. (23 Aug) 100501 Chip Berlet - The Tea Party Movement Taking its name from the famous pre-Revolutionary action of colonists in Boston, the Tea Party movement has made a political impact. For example, Bob Bennett, three-term conservative senator from Utah was stripped of the Republican nomination by the Tea Party. What sparks their activism? There is the rage of those tossed overboard as they watch helplessly as their savings, pensions, investments and homes are just so much collateral damage in an economic system that takes no prisoners and shows no mercy. At the same time they watch the fat cats get bailed out and get fatter. Opportunistic politicians and electronic demagogues stoke the fires of resentment making for a volatile cocktail of demonisation and scapegoating. History is full of negative examples where people's inchoate anger, deep fears, racism and frustrations, are mobilised. False solutions are offered to solve false problems. Chip Berlet is senior analyst with Political Research Associates, an organization which monitors and reports on right-wing movements. His articles appear in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Progressive magazine. He is the editor of Eyes Right: Challenging the Right Wing Backlash and co-author of Right-Wing Populism in America. (30 Aug) 100502 Raj Patel - The Art of Democracy Democracy. Rule of the people. Origins in ancient Greece. In Greece today, democracy is in the streets with people protesting and resisting bank bailouts, wage and pension cuts and structural adjustment. The U.S. loves democracy so much it goes to war to impose it. Remarkable. Elections are an integral part of democracy. But what happens when the results don't go Washington's way? They don't like it and have invaded, staged coups, or imposed sanctions and blockades. But if you are a U.S. favorite you get a free pass such as Karzai's rigged election in Afghanistan or similar shenanigans in Central Asia or the great Mubarak in Egypt. In the U.S. democracy is taken for granted. But do the two parties offer substantive choices? What about economic justice? Maybe it's time to examine the canvas and refine the art of democracy. Raj Patel is a visiting scholar at the Center for African Studies at UC Berkeley and a fellow at Food First. He has worked for the World Bank and the WTO, and has also protested them on four continents. He is an Advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. He is the author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and The Value of Nothing.